In addition to my work as the music reporter here at The Press-Enterprise, I also spend time working on the digital side of things for the newsroom, including making digital maps.
For the past year I’ve been working with Esri in Redlands to use their online mapping programs to help illustrate and tell stories. (On the music side, you might have seen this with our Coachella 2013 artist map or the Inland Empire summer concert guide).
Earlier this week, I attended and presented at the Esri User Conference in San Diego, where one of the keynote speakers was will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas.
My music and digital worlds were colliding and it was pretty cool.
The Black Eyed Peas’ will.i.am. speaks at the Esri User Conference in San Diego on Monday, July 8. The auditorium was very full so I sat on the far side where I could type on a table. (Vanessa Franko/Staff Photo)
He came to Esri’s Redlands campus last year for the WWW conference created by TED founder Richard Saul Wurman.
While there, he learned about what Esri was doing and was intrigued by the work members of the Esri team.
“I never thought Redlands would be the future of Southern California,” will.i.am said during the keynote.
He ultimately teamed up with the company to aid his i.am.angel Foundation that is transforming his hometown of Boyle Heights.
A group of students from Boyle Heights worked with i.am.angel and Esri and also presented their findings at the conference. One of the things that surprised me is that they found that one graveyard in Boyle Heights is bigger than all of the park space combined.
The foundation also hosted a hackathon to encourage kids to get into coding. Will.i.am is headed to MIT this fall to study computer science, too.
He urged those in attendance at the Esri User Conference to mentor kids and turn them into GIS coders.
One of his goals is to turn Boyle Heights into a tech empire and also take it to other cities, including Detroit.
“These maps are important because business has different competitors…the gangs are a business, too,” he said.
The most poignant thing he said was “Turf is no different than intellectual property.”
Also, we just might see will.i.am. in the Inland Empire a little more frequently, too.
“The 10 freeway is long but I’ll drive,” he told the crowd.